Five Bullets 10.3.25
Goodall, Orwell, Pulsars, and more.
Good Morning and Happy Friday Friends -
Welcome back to Circles In Space for another edition of Five Bullets where every Friday I write about what’s capturing my attention. If you’re new here, grab the zine and check out the Welcome page.
October has arrived, a new month! We’ve had some cooler fall-like weather here in New York City but temperatures are expected to rise to the 80s over the weekend.
I finished reading Travels With Charley this week marking the fourth time I’ve read it in as many years. It’s one of those books I keep coming back to. I went deeper this time and feel like I have a new understanding in part because I took notes on index cards and wrote in the margins. Now I’m working on turning those notes into something readable about why the book is one of my favorites and why you should read it, too.
I hope you all enjoy this week’s bullets. Here’s what’s capturing my attention:
Five Bullets 10.3.25
This week we celebrate the life of primate expert and conservationist Jane Goodall who passed away at 91. Goodall grew up in Bournemouth, England with a desire to study animals. In 1960, with little training or scientific education, Goodall travelled to Tanzania and observed a chimpanzee she named David Greybeard using a grass stem to fish termites out of a mound. Goodall was first to report that primates used tools and upended most conventional beliefs about our closest relatives, that primates were individuals with complex emotions and rituals. Goodall said “We have the chance to use the gift of our life to make the world a better place - or not to bother.”
If you’re into New York City history like me check out Open House New York when over 300 locations open for tours and visits. The annual festival is being held October 17-19. Some highlights include the trophy room inside the Sailor and Soldiers Memorial Arch at Grand Army Plaza, the last remaining Ellis Island ferry, and the DOT’s sign shop.
In 2022 astronomers detected radio waves repeating every 22 minutes. Pulsars are usually the source but researchers looked at past data and found that the signal has been received for over 30 years suggesting another kind of star. The source could be a magnetar 15,000 light years away from Earth or red and white dwaf stars locked in a binary orbit.
“When I sit down to write a book, I write it because there is some lie that I want to expose”wrote George Orwell. Director Raoul Peck’s documentary Orwell: 2+2=5 tracks Eric Arthur Blair’s life from his English roots to prophetic writer. Orwell started writing his last novel 1984 on the island of Jura and died from tuberculosis only months after publishing. Peck intertwines Orwell’s writing with images of present-day totalitarianism across the world as if Orwell is speaking directly to us from the past.
One of the most well-known examples of the veneration of cats can be found in Ancient Egyptian history where cats were kept as pets, helped ward off snakes and even appeared as gods. As I write, my orange tabby is sitting on my desk beside me and I can’t help wondering how cats were ‘domesticated’. A Scientific American report shows that modern cats originate from a Middle Eastern wildcat species which likely hung around humans because of food availability.
That’s all for this week folks! If you’ve got something you’re digging lately and think I’d be interested, please send it my way. I’m always on the lookout for new music, movies, books to check out.
Thanks for reading Circles In Space. Subscribe to get a fresh Five Bullets in your inbox every Friday.
Have a great weekend,
Keith.